Organic agriculture avoids using pesticides and chemical fertilisers and helps to revitalise the earth. Organic farming has high animal welfare standards and releases fewer greenhouse gases. As well as being environmentally friendly, organic food is better for a balanced and healthy diet.

Our relationship with the soil and the earth requires a systemic perspective. We cannot afford to keep a world view that thinks of agricultural land as the starting point for a limitless process of extraction. Rather, agriculture needs to be seen within the context of a natural system. This system includes nutrients, water, biodiversity, animal welfare and social conditions.

The impact of farming

We need farmers who can adopt methods that conserve and recycle natural resources. We want to help create a vibrant and diverse agricultural sector with a larger number of smaller farms, more closely connected to local communities and local consumers.

Respecting animal welfare is a fundamental aspect of how we interact with the world around us and a core principle of organic farming.

Organic farming has subscribed itself to safeguarding and respecting nature. As such, having higher animal welfare standards than in conventional farming is one of its major goals.

Respecting animal rights comes out of the belief that people have a responsibility as the dominant species on this planet. There is also scientific evidence that higher animal welfare standards in organic farming also mean healthier produce for humans. High animal welfare standards mean healthier animals, and positive benefits for people who can enjoy food which doesn’t rely on the use of artificial hormones or antibiotics.

We have set priorities about what to finance and how to extend our impact through our activities based on our experience and expertise in these sectors.

We aim to be a leader in impact-driven reporting in the financial industry. Our focus is on managing impact in ways that improve people’s quality of life and on communicating this impact to our stakeholders.

The organically managed land on the farms which Triodos Bank and Triodos Investment Management financed in 2021 could produce the equivalent of 34 million meals in 2021, enough food to provide a sustainable diet for approximately 31,000 people (2020:30,000). Together they financed approximately 33,000 hectares of organic farmland across Europe. This equates to farmland the size of a football pitch for every 13 customers, each one producing enough for 610 meals per year.

We also financed approximately 33,000 hectares of nature and conservation land (2020: 30,000 hectares), representing around 440m2 of nature and conservation land per customer. This land is important for the sequestration or absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere.

In 2021, over 38,000 smallholder farmers (2020: 35,000) in nine emerging market countries worldwide were paid directly and fairly upon delivery of their harvests as a result of the trade finance that Hivos-Triodos Fund provide to farmers’ cooperatives and agribusiness. Global logistical crisis causing delayed shipments due to the lack of containers, and exceptionally high coffee prices in the merchant market resulted in additional liquidity needs for part of our customers in 2021.

The farmers had 49,000 hectares of certified organic farmland under cultivation in 2021 (2020: 56,000). An additional approximately 5,800 (2020: 8,400) hectares was in conversion. The harvests brought 11 different fair-trade and organic products to international markets, including coffee, cocoa, rice, fruit juices and super foods. The amount of coffee exported in 2021 translates to 1.3 billion cups of coffee (2020: 1.7 billion). That is approximately 1,850 cups of coffee supported per Triodos Bank customer.

The Ecological Footprint method, developed by the Global Footprint Network and reported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), has been used to estimate the total number of people that could be fed from organic land farmed as a result of Triodos Bank finance. This is a theoretical approach that shows the link between the diets that people eat and the farmland that provides their food.

The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a measure of the global hectares (gHa) associated with any resource consuming economic activity. The Global Footprint Network has estimated the EF for many countries. They estimate that for the whole of the EU an average of 0.79gHa of cropland and 0.23gHa of grazing land are required to feed each person for one year from the farmed land, in Europe and beyond. They provide EF estimates for each of the five countries where Triodos Bank finances organic farming. This data has been used to estimate the number of people that could be fed three meals each day from the whole organically farmed area of the farms financed by Triodos Bank in Europe.

For Europe, we only include farms that are still in organic farming at year-end. Care farms are included when their main activity and income is organic farming, with only an element of care.

A farmer in emerging market countries is considered a smallholder farmer when its farmed area is below 10 hectares.

To calculate the cups of coffee, we use about 12 grammes of green coffee beans per cup.

In our calculations we only measure the projects with a direct relationship to our finance or investment. Because we are often the principle source of finance for a project we include 100% of the hectares when we co-finance a project. If it is not possible to pull 100% of the data required, we use conservative estimates.

The ‘Impact per customer’ calculations used throughout the annual report are based on a total of 744,000 customers at the end of 2022.

Making impact together

Information for investors in Triodos Bank

We finance multiple sustainable sectors. Take a look around.

Food and farming

Our vision on organic farming and nature development

The choices we make

Managing and reporting impact

Other projects we finance in Food and Farming

Bakkafrost

Snippe Agriculture

Zonneboog

The Story Group

River Cottage HQ

't Reigershof

Vincent Remy

Ecocelta Galicia

Bodegas González Arranz

Granja La Pequeña

Making impact together

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Bakkafrost

Snippe Agriculture

Zonneboog

The Story Group

River Cottage HQ

't Reigershof

Vincent Remy

Ecocelta Galicia

Bodegas González Arranz

Granja La Pequeña

Making impact together

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